A teaching session on the temple stones, on film for Kings & Yogis.
Kings & Yogis
A documentary on the kings, scholars, and yoga traditions of Mysore.
The world of Mysore that shaped Śrī Kṛṣṇamācārya is still alive: its Royal Family, its Sanskrit College, the scholars and teachers who carry it today. We have it on film. Now we finish the work.
Support the FilmA story told from inside Mysore, not from the outside looking in.
Most yoga practised in the world today traces back through one teacher: Śrī Kṛṣṇamācārya. He was formed by Mysore. By its kings, by the Parakāla Maṭha, by the Sanskrit community of the Maharaja's Sanskrit College, where he himself once taught āsana.
That world is still here. The Royal Family is still here. The Sanskrit College is still here. The senior scholars who know these texts in the way they have always been known are still teaching. Kings & Yogis is the documentary record of all of it, with the people of Mysore telling the story themselves.
Filming is nearly complete. What remains is the editing, the translation work, the music, the colour, and the cost of finishing a film at the level this material deserves.
Moments from inside the work.
A small selection from years of filming in Mysore, with the scholars of the Maharaja's Sanskrit College and the oldest living teachers of the tradition.
The voices.
Among those who have given long-form interviews for Kings & Yogis:
Several centuries, told through the people who carry them.
Our first documentary, Mysore Yoga Traditions (2017), looked at the nineteenth-century background of the practice. Kings & Yogis reaches further back, into the long relationship between the Wadiyar kings and the yoga traditions they studied, patronised, and embodied.
The Royal Family of Mysore were not bystanders to yoga. They were students of it. They were the patrons of the Sanskrit College where Śrī Kṛṣṇamācārya later taught. They commissioned manuscripts. They built institutions whose work continues today.
The story is told entirely through the people of Mysore. The King and Queen, the scholars of the Sanskrit College, the teachers who hold the textual and practical knowledge of this place. It is their account, in their words.
of proceeds from Kings & Yogis go directly to the creation of the Śrī Kṛṣṇamācārya Yoga Museum, sited in the actual room of the Maharaja's Sanskrit College where he once taught āsana.
The knowledge is intact. The people are aging. The manuscripts are deteriorating.
We made our first documentary in 2017 because we kept meeting scholars in Mysore whose knowledge was extraordinary, completely intact, and entirely undocumented for the outside world. Many were already in their eighties and nineties. Several of the scholars we have since interviewed have already passed.
The palm-leaf manuscripts that hold much of India's yoga literature are also deteriorating, and quickly. There is a window here, and it is closing.
In 2019 we launched the Mysore Yoga Conference, bringing international students into direct contact with these scholars. The Online Studies programme followed, so the teachings themselves could travel. Kings & Yogis is the next piece of that work: the visual and cultural record of where it all came from.
Contribute, and receive our thanks.
Every donation comes with our gratitude. Where it helps, we are glad to share courses and films we have made along the way. Higher contributions include a co-producer credit in the finished documentary.
Mysore Yoga Traditions
A digital download of our 2017 documentary, the foundation of everything that came after.
Sankhya Kārikā Course
Twelve hours with Dr. H. V. Nagaraj Rao on the Sankhya Kārikā, the philosophical system that underlies the Yoga Sūtras, the Bhagavad Gita, and the practice they describe.
Prāṇāyāma, the Next Step
The complete prāṇāyāma system as taught by Śrī B.N.S. Iyengar. Deep work, on film, in full.
Philosophy of Ashtanga Yoga · 100 hours
Our 100-hour training, with lectures from many of the Sanskrit scholars of Mysore.
200-Hour Online Ashtanga Training
Our complete 200-hour Ashtanga training, built with the scholars of Mysore. Recognised by Yoga Alliance and the Saṃskṛti Foundation.
Credit in the Film
Your name in the credits of Kings & Yogis, plus your choice of any gift above.
Help us finish the film.
There is one chance to put this on record. We are taking it.
Every contribution goes directly into production, editing, translation, and distribution, with 10% to the Śrī Kṛṣṇamācārya Yoga Museum at the Maharaja's Sanskrit College.
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